Imagery instructions improve memory in blind subjects

Abstract

Instructing subjects to make images of word pairs greatly improves their memory for these pairs. It is commonly assumed that the memory improvement results from some advantage in memory of visual images over words. We show that the typical improvement in memory with imagery instructions that occurs in normal subjects also occurs in congenitally and totally blind adults. Hence, the mnemonic imagery effect cannot be explained with reliance on a mechanism that specifically relies on vision. We also demonstrate that the results cannot be explained in terms of imagery in nonvisual modalities.

The relation between visual imagery mediators and recall

“…This emphasis on concreteness independent of imageability can also help explain the results of Jonides, Kahn, and Rozin (1975), who found that imagery instructions improved paired associate performance in congenitally and totally blind subjects. Their results can be better understood if it is assumed that blind subjects have haptic experience with concrete objects interacting in various ways, although they may not have visual images of them.…”

Are Theories of Imagery Theories of Imagination? An Active Perception Approach to Conscious Mental Content

“…Mnemonic effects of imagery in the blind were found by Craig (1973) ;Jonides, Kahn, and Rozin (1975); Zimler and Keenan (1983);and Kerr (1983). Kerr also reports mental scanning, and size/inspection time effects.…”

Mirror reversal by blind subjects in cutaneous perception and motor production of letters and numbers

“…This is consistent with the notion that blind individuals' mental representation of the world may not beas different as one might predict on the basis of a lack of visual imagery. Indeed, recent work has found that congenitally blind and sighted subjects show qualitatively similar performances in various imagery tasks such as mental rotation (Carpenter & Eisenberg, 1978;Marmor & Zabeck, 1976), mental scanning, property verification, paired-associate recall, and free recall (Jonides, Kahn, & Rozin, 1975;Kerr, 1983;Zimler & Keenan, 1983), spatial reasoning (Hollins & Kelley, 1988;Kennedy, 1980;Landau, Gleitman, & Spelke, 1981), and encoding of spatial information b~active touch (Lederman, Latzky, & Barber, 1985). (Specifically, visual information such as the properties of perspective may be lacking in blind individuals' mental representations [Arditi, Holtzman, & Kosslyn, 1988;Hollins, 1985;Hollins & Kelley, 1988;Kennedy & Fox, 1977;Reiser, Guth, & Hill, 1982, 1986, although some related perceptual abilities improve with practice (Guarniero, 1974(Guarniero, , 1977Kennedy, 1982;White, Saunders, Scadden, Bach-Y-Rita, & Collins, 1970].…”